PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows auditioning styles

this is my fault for not keeping up with changes but i have 2024 latest patch and want to audition styles. the old style picker used to have two options - use the chords of the song or load the demo. the new stylepicker only seems to allow me to use the chirds of the song. i want to play demos how do i do it? wading through the manual i now have more sympathy with new users

Hi Bob.

If you go into Stylepicker, you'll find a "Demo" button above the list of styles (#1 on the image below).
Also, by clicking on the "+" (#2) that's on the right side of the Demo button, you can access a setting (#3) that will allow you to set BIAB so that double-clicking on the style will play the demo.



I hope this helps.
--Noel

thanks Noel - trial and error is getting me ther after your advice but i must sya this is a bit clunkier than the old system - is the old stylepicker still available?

Trial and error will always get you there in the end! It's what I use, too. The old Stylepicker is no longer an option.
If you have any other issues, please don't hesitate to ask!
--Noel

"clunkier than the old system"
I am sorry Bob, but I disagree with you 100%.
People fail to learn and adopt to more efficient ways, instead asking to keep obsolete methods, which makes program bloated with with unneeded complexity and redundancy, scaring new comers...and then complain about bugs.

Instead of bashing fantastic new feature, I recommended spending 20-40 minutes with it.
Here are three items of new way that I am aware of that makes new method not whole: An option to "ghost" play, meaning without affecting original. Option to preserve original tempo. Undo coupled with Undo history. You can easily overcome all these by making a copy of original project and working with a copy. I do hope PGM will address these.

New method benefits:
No mousing or scrolling through different menus & jailed pop up dialogs, waiting for memory generations that will not place the style unless you exit and repeat. With new method, unlike old picker you can navigate through the whole project and hear exactly what and how it will sound at a particular place, with your chording , preserving settings and VST instruments you have in your project. You are free to edit project while MTP (Multi Picker Library) is open and switch between the two. You can swap out RT's and other content on the fly without closing MTP. You can quicky audition dozens of styles on the fly with your chordsheet which took 10 times longer with previous way.

I think humans can't keep track of 5000 of anything.
Marbles, Kittens, or even BIAB styles.
Just too many things.

Perhaps PG Music can switch the approach on styles .
Instead of the ever increasing number of a particular style (lets say samba), try the following
Offer a single samba style then afford users some control how each musician in the "band" plays that particular stye.
There may be some need for a couple more but perhaps less than the 187 that currently exist in biab. (Disclaimer - i have no idea how many samba styles there but there are many)


There are examples of this approach to software based session players. I've used a couple of them. They are quite powerful.

mrgeeze,
That would be a candidate for wishlist.
For what it worth, I don't believe I ever used full set of musicians that was offered in a premade style. I would always swap out at least half or more. Styles are just a starting point. With new MTPL (Multipicker Library) and near instant generation it became extremely easy to swap or add tracks on the fly and hear how they sound in context. I made a video few weeks back to show how I use new tools. I will add it here, since it in many ways relates to OP and your posts. I hope it gives you and others some ideas of possibilities new workflow has to offer.

i take youur point Rusty but then you and i differ quite a lot in what we want. i've been using BIAB since the 90s to create backing tracks and as i've said in the past the idea is to replicate the kind of small electric and acoustic bands i used to play with.

BIAB does that admirably almost straight out of the box, and like real life if i want to fire the bass player a replacement is easy enough to find.

Hence what i need is really quite simple. In the old days of midi only i found that moving to PowerTracks made editing and replacing parts easy although that really was clunky. It involved generating a standard midi file as the base track and any extras or replacements meant revisitng BIAB, generating another standard midi file, opening PT and copying the new part to the clipboard to paste into the base track. So much easier now but as my needs are quite simple the amount of editing and changing i neeed to do is quite limited. For my purposes the new stylepicker is more complex than the old one and that results in the extra functionality you find so effective.

Power users such as yourself will find it useful. However, as i've said in the past trying to graft DAW functionality onto BIAB has created a powerful but complicated piece of software. Starting off in BIAB and then doing the heavy lifting in RB or another DAW is the way many of us go and it means that we don't need the grafted on functions that complicate BIAB.

The new functions aren't ones I actually need - BIAB and RB are the ideal solution for my music needs and i haven't yet found anything I need that i can't do. Extra functionality in BIAB does mean a lot to Power Users but makes the program a little more complicated for base users like me but i realise 'clunky' sounds pejorative and my approach to PG Music products is anything but.

I just bought a new car and whereas in the old days i had volume and tuning knobs and push button presets for the four stations I listen to on AM/FM, i now have fifty or so digital stations and a menu that's quite complicated to tune in and save the stations I want. My grandchildren treat that as normal and a breeze and while in the past they've come to me for advice on PCs and software I'm getting increasingly out of date. Compared to pressing a button and turning a knob to get what i want the digital radio is 'clunky' as far as i'm concerned!

I agree with Bob on this point.

I believe that the answer for both camps is to leave BiaB as a backing track generator for those whom transfer the tracks to a DAW and for PGM to incorporate all of the BiaB functions into RB for those whom want the all in one package. YMMV

PS - I do like the new Multipicker Library.

Bob,
I can understand that people get used to certain methods, I do. I just don't agree with the "clunky" part about MTP. You have to spend some time with it to realize that it has a much smoother & faster workflow getting from A>B than previous methods.

Mario:
"I believe that the answer for both camps is to leave BiaB as a backing track generator"
In a way I agree. With exception that existing features that are still a bit raw should be finished and known issues addressed.

Rusty,

I'd like to watch your video, but I get an error message when I click on it.

Me too:

That is very strange. I get:

" Music and other music-related content owned by SESAC in the US is currently unavailable on YouTube and YouTube Music."

What does sesac has to do with my video?


Perhaps this will work:

Working now. It might have been a temporary problem with YouTube.

Yes it is...

How bloc-head ?

Thanks for reposting. Your video showed me methods I can use!

If I'm not mistaken, the Style Picker can be launched by two different methods:

David,
You are welcome.
I am glad at least you are willing to give it a shot

P.S. It seems most (music) software developers stride to ease workflow with each release. PGM did just that with non modal MTP and several other improvements in 2024. So people have more time to make music instead of poking in hidden menus. I hope more people will try new method(s) to see the potential & benefits it has to offer.